London Sunday Telegraph
March 26, 2000
British Sniper Rifle Proves Devastating Hit
By Andrew Gilligan
The Royal Marines have taken delivery of a devastating sniper
rifle
that can stop a tank from almost a mile away.
The £25,000 weapon, carried by the SAS during the recent
Stansted
aircraft hijack, is being issued as the Marines prepare for a
testing
deployment to Kosovo later this year. It is the first time in
Britain
that the rifle has been seen outside the special forces. Its
arrival
with the Marines may be an attempt to equip them for the dangers
they
will face in the increasingly anarchic Balkan province.
Sgt "Shep" Shepherd, sniper course team leader at the Commando
Training Centre at Lympstone, Devon, said: "It's the best bit of
kit
we've had for a long time. It's a major breakthrough - until
this we
were still using First World War scout regiment telescopes for
scoping targets."
Forty-four Royal Marine snipers are being issued with the .338
Long
Range Rifle, made by the Portsmouth-based firm, Accuracy
International. The weapon is accurate to one yard over a
distance of
800-1,200 yards and can be used to "harass" at a distance of
more
than 1,500 yards. "You won't blow up a tank with this but you
might
get a kill," said Sgt Shepherd.
A kill is where a bullet, passing through the armour, damages
the
equipment or the crew, to stop the tank. "You can puncture the
engine
block of a light vehicle. You could also kill a man in body
armour
from quite a way off." The basic rifle, which is four and a half
feet
long, costs £7,000 but is augmented by a sophisticated and
costly
scope, nightsight and laser range-finding equipment.
However, nothing can substitute for the weeks of intensive
marksmanship training that Marine snipers receive. Sgt Shepherd
said:
"We spend days and days teaching people how to deal with the
wind and
weather. It's no good having people who can't shoot when it's
cloudy
or raining."
Dismissing the stereotype of the lone gunman, the sergeant said
that
military snipers always operated at least in pairs. He said: "We
do
spend some of our time in hides, but we often work with the
patrol.
We do precision fire support - picking key targets in a
firefight.
Maybe the enemy soldier with the map or the officer.
"It's a morale thing. You don't want your mate dropping down
next to
you - three or four of those and they don't want to come back."
Marine officers say the rifle is the perfect precision weapon,
ensuring that 21st-century essential, minimum "collateral
damage".
To Sgt Shepherd, however, another thing is more notable. "It's
nice
to see a British weapon that's actually a good piece of kit," he
said.
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